Durable floor mats created for demanding institutional applications, such as main entrance in buildings or manufacturing locations, may have constructions that require complex equipment and multiple processing steps that impact manufacturing investment and, therefore, cost to customer.
Some durable floor mats are constructed as a nonwoven material mounted on a polyvinylchloride sheet, and these may retain dirt, dust and water, but the structure is such that the used mat may become heavy. The cost of a new mat may drive the customer to attempt to clean the used, heavy mat, which can result in additional cost or worker time to take care of their matting, and if the cleaning is not done properly, the mat may not be as effective as a fresh, new mat.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,012,911 (Moser) purportedly describes bonded nonwoven fibrous products and methods of producing them.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,378,398 (Ludwig et al.) purportedly describes highly-porous regenerable thermoplastic fiber mats suitable for filtration of gases, scouring operations and abrasive operations.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,449,486 (Kern et al.) purportedly describes a method for producing a thermally self-bonded low density nonwoven product.